Mbizana Mayor and Municipal Manager living off government perks while community is left behind

The people of one of the Eastern Cape’s poorest municipalities continue to suffer the consequences of unemployment and little development, the mayor and municipal manager are living it up on government perks of luxury cars and fancy homes.

It is time that voters punish self-serving political leaders who have done nothing to improve access to basic services for the people they are supposed to serve.

It was recently reported in the media how a new luxury Jeep Grand Cherokee worth R700 000 was purchased for Mbizana’s mayor, Makhaya Twabu, without authorisation of the council.

Furthermore, I have been informed that mayor Twabu and the Mbizana municipal manager allegedly both have seaside homes in the neighbouring Kwazulu-Natal and travel to their run-down offices in Mbizana daily. The people of Mbizana have little access to basic services, but the mayor and municipal manager choose to live in another area, where there are services.

This is a shocking example of how highly paid officials are living off government perks, while the communities who they are supposed to serve, live in poverty and unemployment. This is what the ANC of Jacob Zuma is bringing to communities instead of hope for the future.

What we need is honest efforts to create jobs so that people can get out of the poverty trap. But it is obvious that Jacob Zuma’s ANC will go to any lengths to keep people in a system of patronage, dependency and enslavement.

The DA is ready to govern and to address this dependency cycle that keeps so many people of this province in political bondage. We will cut out the corruption and get rid of corrupt and self-serving political leaders and civil servants.

That is why we have policies to improve education, create 6 million new jobs, create 1 million internships every year and pay for every single qualifying South African’s tertiary education.

The DA is a party for all South Africans. We know that apartheid dispossessed and disadvantaged black South Africans. We want to redress this by creating opportunity for all South Africans to progress in life and become independent from an overbearing and patronising government.

That is why the DA is growing stronger and stronger. We are asking you to take responsibility for your life and for your future by making the change to the DA.